Pension Litigation

It has been reported, in the course of U.S. Senate hearings on the pension industry, that about one-third of all pension payments are incorrectly calculated. That failure rate could result in your receiving much less than you are legally entitled to.

Gary, Naegele & Theado, LLC has been involved in pension class action litigation since the early 1980's. We have represented thousands of pensioners in class litigation resulting in the return of substantial payments to individual pensioners who were wrongfully deprived of funds they were legally entitled to.

These cases have resulted in not only benefits to pensioners, but changes in the law enhancing the rights of future pension litigants. By way of example, Costantino v. TRW Inc., 13 F.3d 969 (6th Cir. 1994) established that a pensioner does not need to engage in a traditional exhaustion of administrative remedies when resort to the administrative route is futile or the administrative remedy is inadequate.

In Rybarczyk v. TRW, Inc., 235 F.3d 975 (6th Cir. 2000) a United States Court of Appeals held for the first time that prejudgment interest could be based on the higher of the actual rate of return earned by the employer on wrongfully withheld funds or the §1961 rate tied to US treasury bills. In West v. AK Steel Corp. Retirement Accumulation Plan, 318 F.Supp.2d 579 (S.D. Ohio 2004), 484 F.3d 395 (6th Cir. 2007), the United States Supreme Court asked the United States Solicitor General to provide its position in whether the Court should grant certiorari. The Solicitor General strongly recommended against granting review, and in January 2009 the Supreme Court denied certiorari. The decision on this case is relevant to all pensioners who have cash balance plans. The AK Steel decision is the first time in the nation any court has interpreted the application of the Pension Protection Act on Cash Balance Plans.

Gary Naegele & Theado, LLC has fought in the halls of Congress to avoid pension legislation adverse to the interests of pensioners and to advance the rights of all pensioners. The attorneys of GNT have even published a nationally distributed book to make the complex pension rules understandable to all pensioners Protecting Your Pension For Dummies. US News and World Report recently quoted Robert Gary in an online article entitled Will Your Employer Eliminate Its 401(k) Match? Please click here to read the entire article regarding your 401(k) employer match.

Click here to inquire if you are concerned about your pension distribution.

All inquiries receive a response and if we believe your claim has merit, we will investigate your claim at no expense to you. Many complicated pension questions require the input of pension actuaries who are available to our firm for consultation.